Andrea Iannone: No big risk joining Ducati

Published: 28 March 2013

Italian Andrea Iannone doesn’t believe his move to Ducati for his first MotoGP campaign in 2013 is a big risk.

The 23-year-old has arrived at Ducati at a time when the Bologna factory is looking to bounce back from a nightmare two-year spell with nine-times world champion Valentino Rossi, who scored just three podiums in 35 races on the struggling Desmosedici.

Last year was the first time in his MotoGP career that Nicky Hayden failed to score at least one podium while Ducati has not won a race since the end of 2010.

Iannone though believes he has joined Ducati at the right time, with ex-BMW World Superbike boss Bernhard Gobmeier charged with leading the tough challenge of cutting the huge gap in performance to rivals Honda and Yamaha.

Iannone, who was third overall for three successive years in the Moto2 world championship, told MCN: “For me it is a good time to come now because I am only young and Ducati is now having some very big changes and everybody has good motivation for coming better. I am happy to be inside this group and with these people. I am very happy to be part of this project because they want to succeed.”

Iannone, who will partner Texan Ben Spies in the Pramac Ducati, also told MCN recently that he had been encouraged by pal Rossi to move to Ducati, despite his disastrous attempt to win on the Italian brand.

He added: “I spoke to Valentino and for him my decision to come to Ducati was correct. Audi is coming and the whole group is stronger. I have a lot of time in front of me at 23 and I have a lot of time to come better, but why not coming better with Ducati? He told me that the bike has three or four points that were not perfect but all together it means you lose one second. They understand what the problems are now.”